In-Box Review

Background

The German PanzerKampfwagen Mk IV, 744(E) (A13) is a 1/35 plastic kit from Bronco Models. The kit number is CB-35030 and it is able to be built in one version. Bronco has released this representation of a WWII British Cruiser Mark IV tank that has been captured by the German military and is being used by the Pz. Abt. (Flamm) 100, 18th PZ. Division, during the Russian winter of 1941.

In April 1937 the British military wanted to create a heavy cruiser tank and developed the Cruiser Mk IV, which was simply a Cruiser Mk III that had 30mm of armor plating added to the nose, glacis, and front superstructure. The turret sides and front of the mantlet was also modified with additional armor. The reconfiguring did little to affect the tanks performance and speed. The Cruiser Mk IV’s performance was only slightly decreased from that of the Cruiser Mk III. There were a total of 65 Mk III tanks that were converted to Mk IV tanks and there was a total of 655 Mk IVA produced in 1938/1939 by English Electric, Leyland, and Nuffield Group.

The Mark IV had a crew of four which consisted of a commander, gunner, loader and driver. It was armed with a QF 2-pdr gun and carried 87 rounds as the primary armament. It also boasted a 303 Vickers machine gun with 3,750 rounds as the secondary armament. It was powered by a Nuffield Liberty V12 gasoline engine which produced 340 hp (250 kW; 340 PS). It had a weight of 33,040 lbs (14,987 kg), a length of 19ft 9in (6-02 m), a width of 8ft 4in (2-54M and a height of 8ft 6in (2-59m). It had a Christie suspension and had a top speed of 30 mph (48 km/h) on road and an off road speed of 14 mph (23 km/h) with an operational range of 90 miles (140 km).

Some of the tanks were sent to France with the British military in 1940 to help defend against German attack. The British were overrun and the crews attempted to destroy the tanks, however some of them fell into German hands. The German military made some modifications to the Mark IV. Some of these modifications included adding extra storage in the form of jerry can storage racks to the hull and the sides of the turret which gave it a unique appearance. They also replaced the tracks with Panzer II Ausf. D tracks and added an un-ditching beam to the rear deck.

Kit contents

SPRUES AND PARTS
The kit comes with twenty four sprues of tan styrene for a total of 777 parts, four frets of photo-etched brass with 131 detailing parts, one clear sprue with six parts and one length of string to be used as the tow cable. The styrene parts have nice clean detailing and there isn’t an excessive amount of seam lines, very little if any flash and there are very few molding pins to remove. The knock out marks that I did find are in locations where they will not be visible once the kit is completed. There is what I would call a normal amount of sprue attachment points for all of the pieces. The sprues are all identified by a letter and the individual pieces are all identified by a number. The photo-etched brass detailing parts have nice crisp detailing and they have what I would consider the normal amount of fret attachment points. The pieces are all identified by numbers. The kit does come with individual track links which will need to be assembled one piece at a time. The instruction sheet does indicate how to assemble the pieces and tells how many pieces are needed for each track, 119 per track to be exact.

BOX AND PACKAGING
The kit comes in cardboard box with a lift off lid. The lid has art work of the PanzerKampfwagen Mk IV, 744(E) (A13) on it. The box has a sturdy bottom but the cover is the typical type of thin cardboard used for kit boxes. All of the sprues are sealed within clear plastic bags. The instruction sheet is packaged loose.

INSTRUCTION SHEET
The kit comes with an eleven page instruction sheet. The instruction sheet is printed on magazine type of paper which makes it very durable making it handy for future reference. The instruction sheet is laid out very nicely and the assembly steps are very clear and easy to follow. Another detail I like is that the nine assembly icons are shown and explained and shown in color throughout the instruction sheet. The instruction sheet is printed in three languages, English, German, and Chinese.
The instruction sheet is laid out as follows
Front page: Color art work of the tank and a brief history of it
Page 1: Assembly icon instructions and a painting guide.
Page 2: Sprue and PE drawings.
Pages 3 through 14: The assembly steps. Assembly amounts to a total of twenty one steps.
Back page: Color print of the tank with a decal placement guide.
The one thing about the instruction sheet that I didn’t like was that there isn’t any type of guide for using photo-etched brass for first time users. I feel that this is something that should be included with every kit that has photo-etched brass detailing parts. Another flaw with the instruction sheet is the “No use parts” section. The symbol for this is a grey square. The square is barely visible and is hard to see and so are the grey areas on the sprue drawings indicating which parts are not to be used. This really doesn’t matter as the parts will be left on the sprues after construction and will be obvious that they were not needed. However it is a flaw on the sheet and I thought it should be mentioned.

DECALS
The kit comes with one sheet of water slide type decals. You get the decals represent the tank as being used by the Pz. Abt. (Flamm) 100, 18th PZ. Division, during the Russian winter of 1941. You do get four rows of numbers, (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, and 0) which you can use to create your own vehicle number.

CONCLUSION

It isn't what I would call a perfect kit however it is a very nice product. I would have no hesitation to recommend it to others. Please keep in mind that this in an in-box review and that I have not removed any of the parts and dry fitted them to see how they fit.

REFERENCES

Captured American and British Tanks Under the German Flag by Werner Regenberg – Schiffer Military HistoryThe Illustrated Encyclopedia of the World's Tanks and Fighting Vehicles by Christopher F. Foss – Salamander Book published by Chartwell Books, Inc.Tanks of World War II by Duncan Crow – Exeter BooksBeutepanzer – http://beute.narod.ruWikipedia

SUMMARY

Highs: Very nice detailed and easy to follow instruction sheet. Nice crisp detailing on the parts. Minimal amount of clean up required on the individual pieces.Lows: There is no decal placement guide. No guide for using the photo etched brass pieces for a first time user. No figures are included. Verdict: All in all this is a very nice kit. It is a nice representation of the PanzerKampfwagen Mk IV, 744(E) (A13). I feel that anyone who purchases this kit will be pleased with it.

Our Thanks to Stevens International!This item was provided by them for the purpose of having it reviewed on this KitMaker Network site. If you would like your kit, book, or product reviewed, please contact us.

I have been in the modeling hobby off and on since my youth.
I build mostly 1/35 scale. However I work in other scales for aircraft, ships and the occasional civilian car kit. I also kit bash and scratch-build when the mood strikes.
I mainly model WWI and WWII figures, armor, vehic...

Comments

Curious, but the jerrycans are the same as GreatWall ones; and in the 2,8cm PzBuchse gun the wheel cart is the same as in Lion Roar BMW and Zündapp kits.
Is there an agreement between both Bronco and GW/LR companies? Does Bronco make the moulds for GW/LR?
Javier

Nice review Randy..you got that up quick. One question, the photo etch problem you mentioned about the instructions. Do you mean the instructions doesnt show the photo as to where they go? Or it doesnt have a guide on how to use photo etch?

Please remember that is just the manufacturers suggested retail price (MSRP). I know that Lucky Model has it for $35.99 USD.
Sorry Javier, I don't have an answer for you.
Thanks Tim, that is what I meant. Being someone who doesn't work with photo-etch I would like to see a basic guide of some kind attached with kits that do include photo-etch. Nothing real fancy just some basic info such as which direction to bend it, what type of adhesive to use, etc.
Thanks for the feedback guys. I appreciate it.
HARV

Part of my problem with the price HARV is that for that sort of money I would have expected to see a turned barrel and wire not string cables. This is a model of a rare vehicle in this format and in terms of numbers has a limited market. The molding look very good and the PE addition for the fuel tanks is a nice inclusion. but add this altogether and you having this kit in your hands would you pay the MSRP?

I hear you Darren, Bronco kits generally run a bit high in price. As you said, it's a limited market for this kit, and for most of their others, so the pricing will be at the higher end of the scale since they know that not too many will be sold.....even if the price was lower. To me, at this time, Bronco is more of a boutique company. They do seem to be growing at a more rapid pace lately, so we'll see what the future brings.
I look at the CV3/35 tankettes which in the States still go for about $50 USD for an AFV that fits in the palm of your hand, or the LWS which still fetches a hefty price tag (IMO). Nice kits but out of my price range for the subject.
What you do get is a well engineered kit, quality moldings, nice presentation with good instructions. Would I pay MSRP? Not on your life. If I can find them at reasonable prices (read heavily discounted) I'd pick them up.
****EDIT**** Thanks for the review Randy

Very interesting kit! Captured Brit tank w/ German tracks. I like the look of the turret with those Jerry can racks too. Very unique kit - a breath of fresh air from al the re-releases of the typical Panzer III and IV's that are flooding the market.